Lebanon man guilty in father’s murder, faces 18 years to life

43-year-old claims he acted in self-defense.

— A Lebanon man LEBANON on trial for the second time in his father’s slaying has been found guilty of murder.

Freddie Green, 43, of Lebanon was on trial on charges of murder and felonious assault stemming from him shooting his father, Sidney Green, 64, on Dec. 2.

The first trial ended in a mistrial on July 27, when the jury was unable to reach a verdict after 15 hours of deliberation.

On Wednesday, after three hours of deliberation, Green was found guilty of murder and felonious assault with gun specifications.

“Anytime you have a hung jury, you can get input from the previous jury as to things that they found confusing that those of us that are close to the case may not consider to be confusing at all,” Warren County Prosecutor David Fornshell said in a text message.

“We made a couple of tweaks as to how we presented evidence, and we dismissed the alternate murder counts to eliminate the confusion,” Fornshell added.

Green stood emotionless, but his wife burst into tears as Judge Timothy Tepe read the verdicts.

Green is expected to be sentenced to 18 years to life in prison. The sentencing was postponed to give other members of the victim’s family a chance to speak, Fornshell said.

During closing arguments Wednesday, Assistant Warren County Prosecutor Steven Knippen highlighted some of the facts of case.

“An elderly unarmed man was shot in the back of the head. The defendant waited four hours to call 911. And he was high when he did it,” Knippen said.

As he did in the July trial, Green admitted Wednesday that after the shooting he drove to Dayton for heroin during the four hours he waited before calling 911.

But Green testified that he acted in self-defense after taking away his father’s 9 mm handgun in a bedroom of a rented duplex they shared in Lebanon. There were no witnesses.

“If you chose the wrong option, did you have the possibility of dying?” his lawyer, Jeffrey Richards, asked.

“Absolutely,” Green answered after he took the stand, in the first trial.

Green acknowledged he was living with his father after time spent living with his wife, at times in a car, hooked on heroin.

“He brought you in at your lowest point,” Knippen said during his cross-examination.

Knippen urged the jury to reject that Green acted in self-defense, countering that the larger, younger man could have otherwise controlled his father or run out of the house.

Sidney Green died from a single gunshot fired from two to three feet, according to evidence presented in both trials.

He was one of six people killed in domestic violence in the last half of 2016 in Warren County. Two cases ended as homicide-suicides involving both spouses.

Mercedes Robb, 35, of Turtlecreek Twp. is serving 25 years to life in prison for murder in the killing of her ex-husband in November 2016 as their children slept.

‘We made a couple of tweaks as to how we presented evidence ... to eliminate the confusion.’

David Fornshell, Warren County Prosecutor